Creativity in Research Cluster: An Introduction

The SWWDTP Creativity in Research Cluster was founded in 2019 by Sabrin Hasbun, along with a group of other PhD students (including myself) from several different creative disciplines. Initially, our main aim was to investigate the synergies between our different research projects, focusing on practice-based research in music, creative writing and the visual arts. However, the scope of our cluster has since become wider than that, as we realised the potential for creativity in every area of research. This development reflects the cross-disciplinary nature of many of our projects, with several of our members incorporating

creative elements into research that is not based on creative practice.

We have regular online meetings where members take a turn at presenting their research, with plenty of time for discussion. These have proved fruitful, resulting in a number of different collaborations.

In July 2021 we organised a panel discussion event to showcase our research at the inaugural SWWDTP research festival. Our topic was ‘Future Methods and Research Practices’. We had an engaging debate focused around the different ways in which creativity can be incorporated into academic research, including a really interesting discussion on the value of promoting different kinds of knowledge.

Several of us have also been working on a collaborative research article, which we hope to share once it has been published.